Level 150 Roguery is actually really good. It makes it so if your balance of power is higher than any bandit party, they'll always join you. Unlimited men power.

Most of your D (and C) tier skills have a "hurdle" that they have to get over before they are useful or even really able to get XP. Scouting requires you to see the tracks before you get XP, so at level 1 you almost never get any XP (because you dont see tracks/hideouts) while when you are above 150 you can gain 1 level per day just by following your factions main army. Same kind of thing for engineering, as at low levels it takes forever to build even the siege camp, at high levels you can build trebs very quickly and spam out levels. Smithing is tough at the beginning since you know almost no parts, and you have shit stamina. Tactics and medicine both kind of force you to "lose" battles in order to gain their XP, but both end up being incredibly useful. I really hope that in the future that Taleworlds implement some sort of new system to either bridge these hurdles or give you legitimate ways to earn XP in the desired skills

There's one huge reason for taking Scouting on your main character, and it's Keen Sight. When paired up with Mounted Patrols from Riding skill tree, it allows you to bring enemy lord escape chance down to 0%, and I don't need to tell you how valuable that can be. And yes, it's for party leader, not for assigned scout. You can get the skill with only 3CNG and 5FP, and you will probably have more than enough, since the perk is way more valuable when death is disabled, and players will probably pick up higher ages in this mode. After that, you can still hire and level up a dedicated scout companion if you want to use Uncanny Insight on your armies.

Very thorough video as always, thank you Sparty! Hopefully we still see you in Bannerlord once WH3 comes out.

Smithing should allow you to improve/change existing weapon and armour stats, within reason obviously but for example improving cut damage etc perhaps another needs to drop as one increases. Likewise altering weight/protection on armoured pieces.

Well done on the disclaimer, put so well. This is great for discussion so people can talk about it and help people learn the game. Every comment here can help others know just a bit more so they can help know what they can do, Well done Sparty

i agree with the list specially because, as you pointed out the skills in tier D and C are not there because they are bad, but because its so hard or tedious to level or lacking gameplay mechanichs to make them shine altough, i believe and hope those are things to come in the future! And i 100% think there should be more companions roles in the party and overall companions need a few more things added to them like for example when you use one as governor or caravan leader he wont take space in your clan so you can recruit others. Really enjoyed the vid stay safe brother!

How can you not mention Trade 125, wich makes every workshop give you 1 renown per day. This farms your clan to level 6 so easily.

I haven't played the game in a while, but unless it's been changed, it is ridiculously easy to level up Roguery by doing jailbreaks for lords. It's ideal to do it early on before you swear fealty to a kingdom or make your own. Just go to the borders of two factions that are at war and see if they have anyone in a castle's dungeon. High Roguery works well in tandem with Leadership because you will eventually be able to recruit prisoners with no morale loss and you'll be able to promote bandit units into prestige units. Laugh at your enemy as you turn Forest Bandits into Battanian Fians and Mountain Bandits into Vlandian Banner Knights.

Love all your videos bro ! I started playing Bannerlord maybe a month ago on console and it’s been a lot to take in lol. I’m obsessed with the game and trying to soak up all the info I can. I like some other creators who have videos on the game but yours are most helpful, thank you good sir!

Honestly, the skill I cannot live without in Bannerlord are these: Smithing, Steward (party size and efficiency), Leadership (moral), Bow (long distance kills), Riding (mobility of army, I use mostly empire cavalry cataphracts and bucelaris), Polearm (melee cavalry buffs), Tactics (battle advantage) and than one handed and Trading at least at 125 (for workshop maintenance and melee efficiency). Other stuff can be countered with companions and even smithing can be done by companion but I like the buffs it gives for character development. :)

I have characters that specialized in most things, but my most op character (in realistic) is a Battanian that focuses on tactics, blacksmithing, and scouting. Being able take on army size much bigger with auto resolve, this allows you to just recruit anything that comes your way without being limited to faction troops based on their strength. Crossbow has a perk deep in if you love ranged high tier army. Half price for ranged troop with half price from steward makes them free, stack more reduction and your units pays you to stay in your party. Scouting is extremely important, the final ultimate perk at 275 only works on the MC instead of companions, allowing your party to move 10% faster which is borderline broken. Smithing isn't only just for abusing money, I use smithing for every companion to abuse exp gain. You get a shit ton of exp to character level, allowing you and your companions to get attribute and focus points really quickly.

I like crossbows for seiges. The ability to prep a shot under cover, then move out and fire can be key. Seige defense with ammunition barrels, in particular, offsets the quiver amount differential with longbows.

There is no slogging through early levels in smiting - skill gain directly corelates to money gain. If you are doing it efficiently (using companions to help, doing it in a town with abundant hardwood and picking right skills) it is the fastest skill line to level by far. If you are lucky to get good parts early, you can go from 0 to hero instantly.... and become filthy rich in same time... and use your products to bribe enemy lords in war. It is still S tie even after 1.7 nerf.

Selling prisoner’s in 1.7 allows you to increase rougery really fast! Once you’re in the mid game and your taking a lot of prisoners out you ransom them in the tavern you level it up pretty quick

About Smithing don't forget that smithing can give you 1 extra point in endurance and 1 extra point in either vigor or control. combined with the athletics tree that also gives you both those options you can get 4 atribute points which equates to(if memory serves) 16 levels atribute wise. Even if it can be tedious at times i love starting with as much endurance as i can(capping at 8) and then just level those 2 up so i don't need levels to get endurance to 10

Really useful info. Thanks!

Thanks for the video and the detailed explanation of the perks, though I personally think that trade is a perk worthy of A or even S class, remember that you use trade all the time when selling post battle loot, and, if done wisely, can boost your income from the very beginning. Very useful especially at early game.

I wish there was more synergy between the skills, for example tactics and roguery should allow you to attempt an ambush. Experience, knowledge and know-how can make numerical advantage nearly meaningless.

I like the expanded companions. Plus cool if you have to choose and can give more credence to leadership. Add in other lords being able to recruit them or turn them, that would be dope

Interesting takes on the skill trees. I mostly agree, though I'd put Riding S-tier due to the party speed perks (sweeping wind, nomadic traditions, herding). Moving quick on the campaign map is easily as important as moving quick on foot in battles.

Great review, I've learned a few things.

re: Polearms being weak in sieges-- I find this is easily solvable by smithing a swing style polearm with short range that you only equip before siege or hideout battles. You can make the equivalent of a strong 2-hander and still keep your perk benefits.

Great video man

Hey great video so far!

great video bro loved it!

Thank you for making this guide!

I'm enjoying using throwing for my current run. I've decided to fully commit to an front-line infantry run. I think throwing makes sense if you do that since you can also hold a shield, and they're devastating at short range.

Smithing is incredible to level early as well as incredibily easy to. Starting out with trade and smithing focused you can make a hardwood route to buy large quantities of hard wood. After you have about 1500-2000 wood you can then use it to refine into charcoal which can then be sold to southern kingdom/more southern cities with higher buy prices on coal and wood. This boosts your trade and smithing level to insane levels in early game (can easily hit 200+ trade and 150+ smithing within an hour good)

i always did think smiths should be able to make armor or maybe you can also be a fletcher and make really cool and custom bows and crossbows with engravings and such etc etc

Horse archery I find to be the best way to level both skills fast and I mean really fast. Straight out of the beginning of the game I could increase both my archery from 30 all the way to 100 and riding from 10 to 70 in just an hour. I think it all has to do with the speed and momentum you hit your targets that increases it so fast. It's physics based.

Prison breaks are insane for leveling charm and roguery quickly, as well as getting a ton of relation with the lords you break out. I get around 30-40 relation per rescue.

At this point, waiting for the full release feels like being a young man who has to wait for the wedding night. Just give it up already, damn it! I also have to say, now that we have a fancy new year and all, that I very much am looking forward to it on this channel. I also have to say that your content is always top notch when it comes to single player and history/lore, but on multiplayer content it always seems that your heart is not in it. Its always best to focus on what makes you passionate since that also conveys to the viewer. Just my two cents :)

Your timing is perfect, just about to start a new campaign!

Biggest benefit of smithing is getting the bonus attributes. 1 control or vigor and 1 endurance. Together with the same bonus options from athletics, it might enable different builds that need more Attribute points, while they might have focus points to spare. Any clue how effective a shield frontline with the +5armor from athletic and +5 from engeneering is with the armor changes?

Nice tier list! Approved

Personally I think xbow/bow and 1h/2h are interchangeable. Since xbow troops are so powerful, the xbow tree gives a lot of improvements to them making them even stronger. I usually choose between bow or xbow based on what kind of ranged troops I plan to use for the playthrough.

Smithing is insanely hard, you will spend a few hours grinding but the reward is being able to turn 1k worth of scrap to a 20k weapon. Fills the coffers pretty nicely

Good work mate

Smithing is way more valuable on main character than companions for two reasons: 1) You can get way more value out of END stat than your companions. 2) You can get way more value out of two extra attribute points that come with smithing perk tree. All that on top of, you know, being THE money making skill in the game.

I usually start with high leadership, steward, charm and trade. I want to level those from the start of the game and all the way through. Weapons , horse, Athleticism skills you can easily level up during the gameplay with your party or just go to tournaments and arena fights. For companions I like to take strong scouts, medics. I have not played game for a long time, so maybe now things are a bit different, but I would still try something like that.

About throwing weapons. In the initial mount and blade I used it as a backup weapon. My standard setup was: Lance, Sword, Shield, Throwing Weapon. The throwing weapon was just the only ranged weapon that could do with a single slot. Are the loadouts in Bannerlord different?

I haven’t played in ages and really keen to get back into it. Are your old guides still relevant or has a lot changed?

I used to level up Steward on my main, but I've found that it really limited my build options, ever since then I always get it on companion until I can find a spouse, then get the spouse to be my quartermaster. A bonus from this is also that it allows you to have more children, since you are always together with your spouse.

Hey, so I just watched your Be'lakor video, in the last couple sentences of the description for Warhammer 3 on steam it says "The world stands on a precipice. A single push will plunge it into cataclysm. And there is one who schemes to achieve just that, an ancient figure who desires nothing less than to wield supreme power. But to succeed, he will need a champion…" Do you think this is Be'lakor they're talking about? the ancient figure?

I usually at least put a few points into smithing early game as it can help fund my army, really helpful when working towards buying a caravan/workshop

A two handed axe is devastating in seiges since there is cleave damage (you strike trough multiple enemies). I get consistant 80+ kills in seiges with 400 defenders.

Trade is easily s tier. Early game you can make the most money ingame, just getting outperformed lategame by smithing. But the best thing is the renown gain. No faster way then trading 175 (i think). Basicly for every profitable Workshop you get +1 renown per day. I forgot to mention that the Workshop production boost trade allows you to fill all your party slots with unlimited wages. For mor information just check doomtastic gaming yt guides in trading (and more)

Roguery now has the Fourberie mod to explore, sounds so interesting!

thanks.. love this new version of M&B but unlike the old ones, there is SO much to do.

The final skill for scouting is a personal skill rather than a scout skill, so for the tedium of levelling it all the way to 300 yourself you get... 10% party speed.

You might want to try a crossbow play. Just start with Vlandia or the empire (they get crossbow with surviving a siege origin) and start blasting. The first few perks are quite nice (20% cheaper archers and 2exp for all range units)

hey spartacus, strat gaming has done most of those guides and pretty in depth

They should make a perk for roguery the turn bandit units to an elite version of the bandit unit only unlockable by the perk. Then you would have the option to either go roguery for elite bandits or leadership for elite noble troops

Every gameplay I start, i start with trad until 125. Then every Caravan u operate wich make profit gives u 1 Renown. So that means u get to clan level 6 very fast.

You’ve earned my sub.

I was shocked to see Smithing so low, but I ultimately agree. Appreciate the guide.

I'm fairly certain roguery can be gained by selling prisoners to a random broker. Though I dont know of my mods had any impact on it

I think smithing should be higher, any perk tree that gives you 2 free attribute points and is that easy to level should be higher on the list.. combine smithing and athletics and I believe u will have 4 free attribute points, which is top tier. Great vid though 👍

I've been enjoying the smithing mini game. Cool to squeeze out better aspects of the weapon to suit the buyers needs. Plus you get relationship bonuses at some point. I do wish there was more to it though, seems like they put a lot of effort into setting up the system, but didn't fully flesh it out.

Nothing beats crossbow leveling as it also helps athletics or riding skill (By the way, the crossbow is not funky at all, it's super accurate and stupid deadly even on horseback, light crossbow for early game horseback, and later when you get the perk to reload any crossbow on horseback just use the best available) And roguery has "Partners in crime" at 150 where bandit parties always offer to join you, literally infinite units around mid-late game as looter parties are huge (talking 30-150 size parties) I'm sorry but I just disagree with your entire tier list. Though you do mention all the ways to learn the skills correctly and most of the useful perks. Though the only part I agree with is the difficulty of leveling up the skills being tedious for most perks.

한글자막 감사합니다 초반에 자막이 안떠서 무슨말인지 몰랐는데 좀 지나니깐 자막이 설정됬네요! :)

Really appreciate this! Question about making a companion get into Smithing. What exactly needs to happen with that? Does the companion need to be in my party, and I need to be in the town with a smithery, for him to take advantage of it? Do I need to own the smithery? Do I need to be smithing for him to smith? etc.

You got the whole thing upside down bro. I just started a new campaign yesterday, 1.8 patch, for the first time I wanted to rush smithing without any cheese, just sold my starter gear for wood and grinded through it in 6 hours real time. After 6 hours, I was level 14 with 1.2million gold and had a tier 6 weapon with amazing stats. Bought myself the most expensive items from city vendors and headed into arenas, winning every tournament by a landslide and killing enemies 1v10 in battles. Realistic difficulty btw, first time I go with the hardest difficulty in a campaign btw. Blacksmithing was annoying to level, especially clicking your mouse like a madman to smelt/refine was really a hurdle. But in terms of outcome and giving you power in the game, I never had such a strong start. I have so much gold and so much gear that I snowballed into oblivion and right now, the second day of my playthrough, I have half of the map under control. Money is no issue whatsoever and I can pump out everything with gold its insane. 120k gold from a single smithing order, making 5m in 1 hour if not more as long as I want.

For smithing, my tactic is to just hold off until mid game when you can maybe spare the money to buy more expensive weapons and smelt those. If I smelt a a few 10k weapons I've probably unlocked enough parts to reliably just turn pugios into money.

Best way to level up Charm is easily the prison escape scene. It's a tad expensive, and fighting in really close quarters (in civilian gear no less) is tough. But you get a ton of Charm and Roguery xp for doing it as well as a significant relation gain with the lord you rescued.

Bit late too the party but smithing is excellent for 'my little warband' mod. Giving your troops custom weapons like a short but ultra fast 2h weapon is extremely satisfying.

I really enjoy smithing, beutiful weapons, micro managing each part, then you get to use it. Then there's smelting and refining process, all very fulfilling.

Although I have some disagreements here and there, I totally respect ur opinion on the different skills. Nice video :>

Would you say that this tier list still holds up or would you change any around with full release?

Everything has a price perk has a really fun use case as a raider/bandit play through. I just raided Vlandia enough into giving me a castle for peace with my warband.

Smithing gives you 2 free attribute points, 1 to END and another into (either) CTR or VIG. I know its not everyones cuppa tea but if your going to put enough attribute points into END to get solid benefit from Atheletics (which also grants 1 END and 1 to CTR or VIG same as smithing) you might as well right? Its in the same tree and it gives 2 free attributes which is huge. Anyway just my 2 cents. Great video BTW.

I know this sucks to hear, but your videos for whatever reason still rarely pop up on my feed since the algorithm change. I know you posted a video about that earlier and I'm sure it's super frustrating but we're here with you bud and it's frustrating to me as well. Anyway Liked, subscribed, notifications on keep up the cool vids.

I think your points for Smithing are valid, but I'll personally diagree with them for one simple reason: For me, smithing is a super fun puzzle game. Especially with the crafting contracts for NPC's, I find it to be a very relaxing, interesting and fun way to earn monry in Bannerlord. Even though the days of tier 6 two handers selling for 200k+ denars are over, it is still very easy to earn good money by popping into the smithy every once in a while. Not to mention you get a much better return on investment from the weapons you loot from battles!

Does tactics not still alter the live battle differential like in previous mount and blades? if not, its been nerfed like crazy. It used to be a top tier skill. It forced a lower max player on field for the enemy compared to the player based on your tactics versus the enemy army commanders tactics.

Can you make a video creating a tier list for shock infantry and of skirmish cav??

Question (I am very new to the game /10-12days ago I got it and playing the 1.8): How do you get Athletics to 374 if you have 4 stat and 5 focus that is capping at 246 ? I hope the answer is console commands/mod/game version.

Exited to watch

Hey, smithing is both fun and good, just indeed better on companions. It still gives a ton of money if you unlock good components (such as a spearshaft that has both couch lance and brace). It also ups the relations with the smithing missions in every city, so you unlock more troops to recruit. Also it's just fun to create a cool weapon for yourself. I'm currently playing with a 234 length polearm while it only has 18 swing speed, its amazing.

I'd really like to see an update to the unit guide as well.

Rogurey could be A or S tier if you could do more crime kinda like playing a merchant have your own hideouts hitting caravans and shaking down merchants, workshops and mucleing in on other crime bosses

if you don't assign anyone a role does it mean that the perks will apply and do you "learn" equally fast as if it was assigned?

That's great inspiration, my next character will be as d tier as possible.

Hi i have trouble with units at the beginning of the battle. I always start with 50 soldiers while they start with over 150 on the battle, how do i increase this ?

"One handed is the king of melee combat" Two handed with cleaving and block breaking: am I a joke to you?

I love your build mate. Yet i have to say smithing could be very useful early - mid game in terms of making money. As you said it takes little time to improve it but there is little use if you are just gonna use it for making weapons. I totally agree but if you go to towns you may find thamaskene orders worth 100 k - 200 k once you upgrade your skill enough. So it is even more profitable than trading.I think if you are getting bored waiting perks to make real money and feed your campaign like me, it is like an "A" tier perk. Respect ✌

So do companions still level up after they leave your party? Like when they're a lord

The weapons you can craft with smithing as early as the midgame can be so powerful they put standard game weapons to shame. Smithing can be a bit of a slog, but its definitely not a bottom tier perk by any means. Smithing perks also provide focus points to weapons as well as giving you stat points, which besides party size increasers are in my opinion the best perks in the game.

Crossbow and engineering synergy is pretty nice

i found out you can gain engineering exp by building traps at hideouts to bait out the bandits

Whats the Deal with the Banners in your footage? Did i miss out on that? Or is this a Mod?

Smithing would be great if you could bring your own weapon into a tourney

Lots of good mod ideas here, too.

Smithing bonus I discovered: tier 4 2h curved blades (the one that pierces shields) sell for 18-19k each, just max out the size on all pieces. I made my first $1mil before even getting an army. Got a bunch of followers leveled up along the way and we're all sporting beyond-top-tier weapons and I could afford to deck us all out in emperor-level gear. I'm not invincible, but sometimes I feel like I am. I'm sitting at 253 smithing and I'll never think about finances again. To be clear: when I swing my sword, people die. If they use their shield then it's destroyed, and then they die. I swing as fast as a 1h. It's crazy. .... that being said, I wish I'd just traded my way to victory first so I could buy a town.

I like to level smithing to 275+ for the ability to craft epic weapons that fit my needs perfectly. For example, if you're into ploearms you can craft something long and swingy for open battle and something short and choppy for sieges. That way you can concentrate your skill points without getting gimped in close quarters. Both versions hit like a truck. You can also craft crazy fast, compact, hard hitting 2-handers for prison breaks, then chop people in half before they have time to block. I also like smithing for the cash. I don't use ploearms and 2-habders to cheese a billion gold, but I'll gladly trade a half dozen nice swords for a top tier helmet. IMHO the armor prices are batcrap crazy, so that seems fair to me. The big thing to remember for leveling smithing is Aserai throwing knives. Pugios are cheaper, but they can be hard to find, especially in bulk. You can get a thousand+ Aserai knives in one pass through the desert, and they smelt into pretty much the same ingredients as pugios. IMHO, it's also fair to trade a dozen nice polearms for a boatload of throwing knives. If I could just buy fine steel I'd do that instead, but I can't.

I made an engineer character who uses crossbows as his weapon. I rarely ever got to be an engineer but i had a lot of fun blasting people with the crossbow lol

I love smithing mainly money and overall weapon making because i have ablut 5 hours in my bannerlord save and have smithing all the way up to 300 and have stats on my crafted weapons that beat any other weapons

Defending a siege with the scorpions or huge crossbows on the walls gives me 150 eng points in 2 battles. just happened thought id mention it otherwise i had no focus on it until then.

Is there any mod in this video? Because the last time I played this game the skill cap isn't much like this

Not sure if this is 1.7 but that medicine one is OP as heck as a last one, you could go around with tier 2 troops and just kill by attrition lol